A Sketch Before They Become Poop Machines

4/29/13 Lamy fountain pen cartridge ink, handmade sketchbook

This sketch is the reason I carry a small sketchbook and pen with me wherever I go, even on my regular fitness walks: You never know when a sketch will find you.

For the three decades or so that I have been walking around Green Lake regularly, I’ve looked forward each spring to the short period when ducklings and especially goslings start appearing close to shore, their respective parents looking around guardedly. All too quickly, those adorable goslings turn into gangly, awkward adolescents. Even more quickly they join their over-populated ranks of adult Canada geese and become poop machines leaving profuse piles in parks and everywhere else they hang out. Most people find geese a nuisance. In theory, I guess I should too, but who can resist those fuzzy goslings?

Usually I take mediocre-to-bad photos of the first gaggle of the season, and later I look at those photos on my phone, disappointed. This year I didn’t bother – this five-minute sketch was way more fun and more satisfying.